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Public Relations

Friday, November 02, 2007

On Tuesday Chris Anderson the editor in chief of Wired
magazine wrote a blog complaining about PR people. He has a point there is a
significant problem on both sides of the PR equation, editors and PR people
alike have sincere difficulties navigating the current model. Chris went a
little to far I think and outed those PR folks who he felt had inappropriately
pitched him over just the last 30 days by publishing their emails addresses. This is the power of social
media, one can have an emotion and express it immediately on one’s blog. While
I don’t think Chris’ tactics were anything short of childish, I do think those
same tactics have started a firestorm of open dialog. The blog “bashing” kind
of scrappy insults and some truly thoughtful input. Check
out the blog post and the over 300 comments it is quite interesting. His reaction and outing might all be worth it to create change.

From a personal perspective there is a real down side, I was
on that list. I was shocked and surprised but alas there is my email for all to
see, spammers et al. It was embarrassing and a real punch in the gut. So why,
you are asking am, I sharing this with you? Well because the discussion is worthwhile
AND there is a lesson in crisis management.

I have talk about the elements of crisis management on this blog,
and here I am in one. My email is being blocked by the publications I need to
reach, many ISPs took Chris; spamming accusation seriously and I am now black
listed on many accounts making my job almost impossible to accomplish. But more
importantly my name was besmirched.

So what do I do, call Chris a jerk or take responsibility. I
was thinking to myself what I would recommend to my clients? It would be to
take publicly take responsibility and not offer excuses but look for solutions.
So below is that effort. I also posted what you see below as a comment to Chris’
blog becoming another voice as part of the chatter responding the challenges he
posed.

It was a very nice gesture to receive and email back from
Chris this morning, commenting on my comment, he said:

“Just
a quick note to thank you for the thoughtful comment. One of the best, I
thought.”

--
Chris

My Comment Posted on
Chris’ Blog:

Mea Culpa. I am on the list. And I have to say I felt shame
all morning. I know better, I have been doing this for over 20 years. I even
wrote a book. The PR climate is
challenging at best these days, but I took a short cut, which will get you in
trouble no matter what business you are in.

Bottom line is I made an error in judgment and have to face
this rather loud unruly music as a result. But I think this dialogue is a good
one. We have heard what Chris and many other editors have contributed here. And
beyond the comments here I have personally heard from many long time PR folks
who are tired of being berated by overworked editors for the methods we use to
contact them. I was at a PR function last week and the Los Angeles Times editor
said “PR people should be seen and not heard.” Judging from that comment
combined with Chris’ blog post the level of respect PR folks can expect from
today’s editorial community is quite low indeed. This is not a complaint, it is
simply an observation. But it is hard to take sometimes.

The PR industry is
broken.

Here, from my perspective, are some of the challenges
today’s PR professionals face:

Client budgets are often quite low yet their expectations are off the charts. It is almost impossible to do the level of due diligence that editors are demanding given these smaller budgets. That is not to say that editors should not be demanding the research –of course they should. But should an editor go off the deep end because we sent and iPod pitch instead of a gaming pitch. Well maybe, because at the end of the day he doesn’t cover iPods, and it is understandably frustrating to constantly receive pitches that aren’t relevant.

Editors are overworked and many cover too many industry verticals because budgets at publications are tight and downsizing has been a regular occurrence. So, most editors are taking on way more than in the past. The Los Angels Times used to have over 1200 editors they now have 800. The news hole hasn’t changed that much, yet there are less editors to fill the same
space. The other problem from downsizing is reporters change their beat quite regularly, so tracking them has become more difficult. Within this challenging environment, in an effort to keep editors up on our client’s products we likely overdo it from a pitch perspective (both in number and email length) in part because it is more and more difficult for editors to take the time to respond.

There are fewer publications to garner coverage from, especially from a traditional hard copy magazine perspective. Most clients don’t perceive results on Blogs or online publications as “real” coverage. So more companies, with more PR people, and fewer editors receiving 100s of emails
per day equals a big problem.

Many of our clients have multiple vertical markets and therefore multiple publications beyond the tech trades. Once again the sheer amount of time needed to do due diligence on each reporter is not something that most budgets can accommodate.

The PR agency model (given current budget ranges) does not allow for experienced senior personnel to be doing media relations. Agencies in turn are under huge pressure to make a profit, especially public companies. The result: more junior people executing most media relations programs. This business paradigm does not offer an environment conducive to the demands of the editorial community. These are precisely the demands that Chris is making.

By the time a PR person is senior enough to know all the right editors and understand their likes and dislikes they are so burnt out by this environment that they leave the industry, and the cycle of junior employees starts again.

Agencies with many small clients have to cover too much editorial ground. It is harder and harder for agencies and even freelancers to specialize in a particular vertical niche and still survive.

So what is to be done? Is it up to us as PR professionals to
manage our client’s expectations for results? Yes! For example explaining the
news environment, setting placement expectations etc. Yet clients look at the thousands of dollars
spent each month (whether it is 3$K or $30K) and have a boss to whom they must
justify that budget. Even if we share with clients that, for example, the half
page coverage placed in BusinessWeek was equal in ad dollars to more than 2
years of PR budgets spent, still does not make up for the one month where coverage did not appear. So, is it
always possible to set proper expectations? Unfortunately no. Sometimes the
cost of doing business forces us into a corner and perhaps into making
mistakes. But there is an opportunity to change this… perhaps it is time to
simply be that broken record to our clients and offer continual explanations
and recommendations of the reality of market conditions that perhaps the “news”
they are creating is not enough. If the company still pushes for pursuing bad
stories we walk away from the business. That is a hard road, because there is
always an eager PR pro or agency that is willing to pick up the business and
agree with the client that the “other” PR firm they hired didn’t know what they
were doing.

Back to this particular matter, despite the fact I made this
list, I recommend searching the publications site first using relevant keywords
to see who is writing about the client’s topic. Read the articles and send an
intelligent well thought out pitch based on what the editors has written about.
Use services like Vocus to validate or find the email for that editor. (See my
blog post about There is NO “free publicity” http://credibilitybranding.typepad.com/blog/2007/04/there_is_no_fre.html
) Did I do that for Chris, no and he is right to be upset.

I do think Chris’ particular response is a little extreme,
but he is in the PR game too, he is creating controversy for his publication
and his book. And look its working, I heard about this post because a writer
from the New York Times was looking for a comment (he spammed Chris’ email
list) for a story he is writing. This post has also been passed on to other
bloggers and has become the story. This is good PR. But, more importantly it
has prompted the chance for an open dialog. Chris’ blog post and the level of
frustration found in the comments at this blog post would not have happened had
there not been something fundamentally wrong. I am in the middle because I took
a short cut and now have to face the repercussions. What I do know is that I
will use this as an opportunity to take a closer look at how I do PR and will
scour my lists and think twice before I send my next pitch. So thanks Chris for
the opportunity to take stock and do better.

However all that being said, I think the method of the
“outing” was a little mean spirited. I had to take a moment, to overcome the
shock of seeing my email address on this list. Then I looked at the pitches I
sent Chris. I have only sent him three emails in the two years of outreach
(found in my outlook sent items); two in October (one was sent twice in error)
and one in September. Wow is my timing crap or what? Now I am being outed to
all Conde Nast publications and chastised by over 300 commentors on his blog.
Not to mention the anticipated onslaught of spam email I am expecting. And all
for three emails? And they were pretty
good pitches, newsworthy well written just sent to the wrong editor, which was
definitely a bad choice on my part.

There must be some middle ground here… I hope we can take
this opportunity to start a true dialog and stop bashing each other; perhaps
we can take some action that results in changes that will help us all.

Monday, July 30, 2007

What do you do when you did something wrong? The following
article by ExecuNet’s Robyn Greenspan
brings up some great insights into the changing landscape of crisis management,
specifically when is “sorry” not enough. I would like to contribute an
additional point of view, as a communication specialist I work with how
different words that may seam like the same thing actually mean something quite
different. For example in the case of “I’m Sorry” vs. “I apologize,” In most
instances “I’m Sorry” means “ I am sorry you feel that way” where “I apologize”
means the person has take responsibility for their actions and is feeling
repentant. The energy of these two approaches can be felt through the tone and
the style of the media advisor/press release/web site content. You can
definitely sense that the tone of I’m sorry is different and not as forthcoming
as an “I apologize” type of approach. So when you are about to have a mea culpa
moment reflect on which of these energetic versions you want to use. In fact
using “I’m sorry” does have its place especially when it isn’t your fault at
all. Regardless all of it affects your brand so think it through.

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, is the latest apologist for his
role as an anonymous Internet user who posted negative messages about
competitor Wild Oats on financial stock forums. It may seem like a MySpace
prank at first — an impulsive action from a high schooler who didn't get a prom
date — but Mackey routinely posted on these message boards for eight years.

Mackey's actions were certainly opaque, and his apology seems to represent
transparency. But with a recent wave of public "sorries" from
visible figures — Paris Hilton, David Neeleman, Don Imus, Mel Gibson and a
growing list of politicians — these megawatt mea culpas may no longer suffice.
In many cases, the apology seems less about reprehensible actions and more
about "I'm sorry I got caught."

While the antics of drunken celebrities, corrupt politicians and greedy
corporate executives (Enron, Tyco, etc.) may not surprise us — and may
sometimes be expected — Mackey's actions are more disappointing. Whole Foods,
like Neeleman's JetBlue, are supposed to be the good guys — socially conscious,
friendly, customer-centric companies that care about their employees, the earth
and doing what's right.

They both issued very public apologies, but Neeleman's and Mackey's downfalls
are decidedly different. The former faced a customer service debacle while the
latter deliberately deceived stakeholders; Neeleman absorbed the blame for
issues where he may not have been directly responsible and Mackey's
consistently poor judgment put his company and — especially its brand — in
jeopardy.

·It identified the popularity of the “tricked
out” or “Pimped out” trend and leveraged it to the point of silly (which also
worked)

·The novelty value of the prize that had great
visual appeal for the broadcast media

·It targeted its male demographic properly with
the right prize, tone, and theme

·Using YouTube as the video news
releases (VNR) distribution method. (With the new FTC rules about VNR
usage broadcast news stations have to report that the VNR is and “advertorial”
and not created by the station. This means that many stations will no longer
use VNR footage.)

·They could have gone even further by offering it
to some television shows or movies for product placements. Couldn’t you picture
this on The Simpsons or some of the odd reality shows out there e.g. Falva
Fave?

Much
to the chagrin of thousands of men who entered Roto-Rooter's sweepstakes
offering a tricked out toilet, a woman has claimed the prize.

Marcia
Luhman, 55, a semi-retired Oro Valley, AZ, resident won the “Pimped Out John”
valued at $5,000. She said she entered because she thought her 25-year-old son
would like the prize.

"I
did it as a joke because he is a little crazy and I knew he would enjoy
it," she told reps at Roto-Rooter.

The
sweeps garnered 318,000 entries.

The
high-end Kohler Cimarron commode has a flat-screen TV, gaming system, DVD
player and other electronic gadgets attached to it. An iPod docking station is
equipped with a toilet paper dispenser and the seat is covered in lime green
fuzz.

The
goal of the campaign was to bring in a younger demographic to boost the
company’s core customer base of aging Boomers and beyond.

The
winner was announced April 25, National Plumber’s Day. The toilet arrived at
the winner’s home yesterday, with the option of a Roto-Rooter service person
installing it, spokesperson Paul Abrams said.

Roto-Rooter
used a $140,000 budget for the campaign that included notifying its 200,000
e-mail subscribers about the sweeps and placing videos on YouTube.com.

A
major PR effort helped boost awareness. The Pimped Out John was mentioned on
major broadcast shows including the “Today” show, “The Tonight Show with Jay
Leno”, the BBC, as well as in hundreds of newspapers.

Brian Comments: "I offer how to make them work, alternatives for
formats, what not to do, why PR should/shouldn't participate, examples, as well
as a "greatest hits" of blog posts I've written on the subject"

It really needs any comment from me. It delivers the goods on how and why to do a
social media optimized press release. This is the first post I have found that gives
a holistic picture of this with multiple examples. Thanks Tom!

I had no idea
that I would start such a controversial subject when I wrote "Die!
Press Release! Die! Die! Die!" I was asking for a change in the format
of the press release by adding URL links, deconstructing it, and
labeling/tagging different parts of it for easier assembly of information.

Some of
the response to the post was antagonistic, the rest was very positive.
Since the publication of the post many people have worked hard to change the
format of the press release and bring it into the new media age. Some call it a
"social media release."

...the Social Media
Release has been pushed by many influencers, including Tom Foremski’s
public outcry for the death of crappy press releases; Todd Defren
who offered the first template and remains an authoritative champion; Chris Heuer who helped lead an effort to
propose a standard
for their construction and distribution; Stowe Boyd who reminds
disingenuous, lazy or opportunistic PR people that they’re not invited to
participate in Social Media (and rightfully so); Shel Holtz who hosted the original NMRcast,
and continues to demonstrate the value of new releases; Shannon Whitley's work to help PR "get
it;" and the many others who continue to carry the flag forward.

...The social media
release, aka SMR, aka social media press release, aka new media release, aka
hrelease, is not a miracle pill to cure the ills of poorly written press
releases. It is merely a tool that is most effective when combined with a
strategic arsenal of relevant company blog posts, traditional releases,
relationships, and an emerging category of press releases that tell a story
(written by people for people using SEO to reach them).

Friday, April 13, 2007

This notion of free publicity is giving me heartache. There
are so many snake oil salesmen touting FREE PUBLICITY. I just saw another one
in The Learning Annex catalogue. When
you say “free” it devalues the tremendous amount of hard work it takes to get
to the free part. “Free” is just spin to engage you. Trust me, it aint free.

For successful programs there is always a strategy, a sound
scientific market driven approach to what the market will embrace and
believe. There is strategy; from determining
the messaging the target audience will buy, then how the editorial community
will trust it in a form they can then translate into the right message for
readers. Then there is the editorial research, the event research, making sure
the publicity program/stunt/pitch is in alignment and will enhance the brand.
That the programs will speak to the persona of the company and/or product.

THEN there is the programs and tactics themselves each with
their own form of strategy in timing, messaging and positioning.

Sure there are times when out of the blue a product catches
the eye of an editor or reporter and then there is a domino effect of coverage.
But even that is not free… the product had the right benefits at the right time
presented through packaging and copywriting in a unique way that caught the
imagination. This is not a coincidence; it is part of this process. A product
that delivers on its promise is half the battle to generating marketing
success.

None of that work is free. IF the work of marketing and PR
is done with integrity and intelligence then, JUST MAYBE the “free” publicity
will manifest in the form of articles and broadcast interviews, product
placements, resulting in critical mass notice and buzz.

Many that are selling “how to get it free” are living in
tactical land. Those that are buying what they are selling get a pile of
tactics that just don’t work as well without a well thought out strategy, plan
and credibility branding platform backing it. Bedsides, saying it is free is
disrespectful to the professionals out there doing this for a living and the
journalists out there being paid to be “spun? I think not. Let’s lose the FREE
and start associating VALUE with the principles of marketing publicity.

Friday, March 16, 2007

PR Pros unite around one thing… “they just don’t get it” and/or “they aren’t a partner”

Public relations is an art form in building relationships. It is at its essence sales (most PR folks cringe when I say that), but isn’t sales about forging the strongest relationships around a business concept? Well that is also what PR does. So in sales do you expect your sales staff to go out tomorrow and bag the largest account the first time out? Yet many companies figure their PR staff can get them in BusinessWeek, the top trade publication or even the local paper immediately. And they seriously ask in a very confused way why that is a difficult task.

While your potential sales contact is likely cynical, multiply that by 1000 for your average editor. Your sales contact likely receives many pitches from competitors (a dozen if they specialize in one area of purchasing, maybe 50 or more if they have multiple purchasing responsibilities); an editor is literally receiving thousands of pitches. These editors are looking after a category meaning all the leaders, sub leaders, and overlapping products that make up that category. So enter the poor PR person with an average budget that is one tenth of an ad budget (and trust me every single penny of that PR budget is accounted for), a somewhat hostile editorial environment and a client that expects miracles and is quite vocal on a regular basis about those expectations.

Here is some advice to clients and PR pros.

Clients

·If you want miracles pay for it… increase your budgets to account for the time and creativity needed to bag the big ones.

·You have to make news in order to get it. Put yourself in the editor’s shoes, would you jump for joy and write a cover story about the new doo dadd you added to the old widget? What is the news? Give your PR folks the news stories and hooks they need in order to engage the editorial community.

·Don’t over focus on what the competition is “getting” from a PR perspective. I have known more CEOs that actually spend quite a bit of time focusing on the placements the competition got. While it is important to track, the response to the tracking can create a train wreck of distraction. Most REACT (instead of responding), meaning it the next big crisis of the company that there is a article that doesn’t have enough information, has too much information, mentions the competition more prominently, doesn’t completely get your story right etc. etc. etc..

oWhen a client says jump most PR responses will be appropriately “how high?” The strategic ones will ask some serious questions like, who are we jumping to, why is it important, what are the benefits to those we are jumping to etc. PR in the right hands is actually a very strategic process, and you hired these PR experts for a reason, so let the PR budget be used for the work not the justification.

o“Why weren’t we included?” Before you ask this question read the article, in more than half the cases the article and the audience it is targeting is completely irrelevant to the business goals of the company. Why waste energy being in everything… target the articles that will lead to an increase in revenues. An article for an articles sake is a waste of budget. Also if you really did miss being included in a relevant opportunity, address it and let it go. In PR EVERY missed moment is a new opportunity for contact. Just like sales, every no is a new yes. Now your PR person can go back maybe get a longer more focused briefing. In my experience the missed opportunities usually result in the best results. A bigger article that is more focused on just your company. Stop blaming, become a partner, and find ways (using sales jargon) to close the deal.

oComparing the number of placements to the competition; it isn’t about quantity, it is about quality, go for what will be credible and increase the value of the brand, you can’t get every placement and in many cases you don’t want to (read the bullets above for more reasons). Besides one of your competitors may have been at this for many more years than you. They have built these relationships with editors who simply won’t give you as much attention unless you can prove yourself (see credibility pyramid)

·Keep the sales guys away from the PR folks. They are not marketing professionals and many don’t get that the PR person is not magically creating articles. The PR person is doing the same thing the sales guys are; building relationships. So don’t let them bother the PR folks unless you are committed to a facilitated workshop where consensus is built between marketing, communications and sales.

·It’s a partnership. If you are paying your PR agency $10K - $20K per month which is the average budget. That equates to around 80 – 160 hours a month. For $20k that would be one person full time. Would you expect one person who is writing press releases, developing messaging, managing trade shows and product launches plus all the media outreach, to be able to track every single article that is even remotely related to your product and company? It just isn’t realistic. It is everyone’s job to track articles. That means it is a partnership, if you see an opportunity don’t sit back and test the agency to see if they are going to catch it. Instead send it along without judgment. Work as a team with your PR agency or freelancer, if they know you are on their side, working in partnership and sending them relevant placements they will also be more of a partner and collaborate. They know what to do with these articles, and are better armed to deliver great work.

·It takes time, I know you hate to hear this, it is a game of building relationships, establishing credibility and making news. Sometimes if the market opportunity is ripe and the product meets an obvious need, it is a fast, flexible and easy process with quick results. However, this is the exception not the rule.

PR Pros:

·Set expectations, clearly succinctly, with excellent research and experiential reasons, explain to your client what they should expect given the market conditions, their product, the news opportunities and the editorial landscape.

·The above bullet really speaks to being strategic from the start: set up a strategic plan first. Use the strategy as the benchmark for all tactics, using it as a filter for new tactical programs. For example does a new suggested tactic meet the planned strategy, approach, messaging etc.—don’t add the program unless it does. This is also a great way to push back on use of budget; if it doesn’t meet the strategy it is a waste of budget.

oBuild relations with editors beyond a pitch. Be that person that offers an editor some interesting insight or ask them for their perspective on market related information that is not completely about your client’s product.

·Go beyond media relations

oAwards (Note to clients – these take a long time and some extra budget to pay for the submissions.)

oSpeakers bureau (Note to clients – these take an average of 6 – 9 months just for the submission process and are highly dependant on the level of credibility of the company and speaker. This is another relationship building process with show coordinators.)

oTaste testing, this is an open opportunity for PR to handle this. Word of Mouth (check out the Word of Mouth Association – WOMMA) is taking over here and it should be the domain of PR… since when is the “public” part of PR just for media relations?

oEvents and publicity stunts… get those PR budgets up by using this great high profile model of publicity. This is a more effective use of an ad budget and usually much less expensive in comparison.

For everyone involved in the marketing process—and PR is just one tactic in a marketing communications strategy—the question will remain; How credible are you? What is the news? Do you meet the basic standards of credibility and newsworthiness for editors, analyst, influencers, partners and customers to believe you are for real?

NOTE: With my partner Henry DeVries, we are putting on a seminar in Southern California for regional companies. The focus is on media training, pitch and messaging development AND an opportunity to meet face-to-face with over 25 editors and speech bookers. Go to Media Speed Dating to find out more!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

What is the natural behavior that shows up during a crisis? People either retreat or take charge. During a business crisis, meaning anything that could go wrong in business, from ecoli to crashed sites, the same energies show up. The marketer is the first person that an executive team will pursue to manage the situation. They will want to be told what to do. So what do you do? First don’t panic, look at the situation and establish what the worst potential outcome could be and what would be the best potential outcome, and start your response plan from there. The worst is to retreat and not address it; you will lose many, many customers plan and simple. The best is to be up front and address the issue head on with honesty and sincerity. It is the same as nurturing any relationship, own up to the mistake and reverse it while explaining what you are doing along the way.

Here are a couple of check list items to perform when a crisis occurs:

Identify worst and best case scenarios, develop the plan and materials for the worst case first so you are prepared and have thought things through. Don’t ignore the worst, it is human nature to try to focus of the best, but a marketer has to plan for the worst.

At the same time you are working on the plan for the worst, put a message on the home page of the site immediately with a paragraph or two describing the situation and if possible some information on solutions being developed.

Put together a web site, the domain could be specific to the crisis or establish a page on your regular web site. Even if you never turn this site on have it ready ASAP to publish when appropriate.

Have several versions of the web site ready to go: the “it is resolved” version, the “it is in process of being resolved” version and the; “stand buy for more updates on the timing for the resolution” version. In each version be up front and honest, sincerity is the name of the game here.

If it feels appropriate put out a press release, nip any media criticism in the bud before it happens. When you put the release out you manage and mold the messaging.

The release should be succinct and to the point: what happened; how did it happen; what is being done to resolve it; and any other relevant information that can help guide customers and vendors to personal solutions.

Contact the influencer bloggers and industry influencers and apprise them of the situation. By personally letting them know they become an ally.

Contact your best customers and apprise them of the situation, don’t let them hear it from somewhere else.

By being proactive on all fronts you are managing the message –you have it, it doesn’t have you. When you resolve a mistake/crisis in this manner you usually come out the other end better than you went in. Your quick action and open dialogue likely created more very loyal customers than less. Just as in life, how you handle you errors and life’s challenges is more important than the error itself.

Following is a blog post from Giovanni Gallucci on his blog, The Agency Blog. It talks about a crisis that occurred this past weekend to the MyBLogLog folks. This is a great example of how to manage it. I think raw and current is better than lawyered and manicured. Their response was real and the blogging community in particular responds to real. In a large corporate situation a slightly different tone might apply. At the end of the day, be a marketer and know you audience and know how to speak to your audience. The MyBlogLogteam did just that.

Hats off the Eric, Scott and the rest of the MyBlogLog team at combating the inevitable issues that crop up when you launch a service that grows faster that one could have every hoped for.

Over the weekend the service was hammered by a hacker/spammer that found an exploit in their code-base whereby the hacker could invite someone to be a co-author to their blog but also approve them w/o the author's knowledge.

This created quite a bit of angst for the network's users and owners. So how did the MyBlogLog team handle the situation? They jumped in over the weekend and started patching the code. No big deal on many levels. You'd expect them to do just that. But they also blogged about the situation in detail and kept the user-base updated on the situation. Their response was perhaps one of the better ones I've seen lately in such situations. The Flickr.com team tends to do a good job at this also. The commentary on the MyBlogLog Blog was honest, raw and up to the minute:

Oh. My. Gosh. This weekend sucked. No doubt about it. But we've beaten things back and we have a plan for making things better still. I'm going to tell you all about that in a minute.

Well done indeed. It wasn't polished. It most likely wasn't vetted by legal or PR. Raw, honest, simple and to the point. PR/Marketing pros can learn from this.

Friday, February 16, 2007

“Marketers don't want to spin us. They want to hold us perfectly still, so they can figure out who we are, what we want, and how to reach us.”

The blog Branding Strategy Insider recently posted an article from contributor and renowned marketing trend philosopher Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm articulately talks about The Spin Myth. He cites example of historical marketers and brings us to some of the founding models of marketing.

This elegant piece is a perfect example of what Malcolm mentioned in the article... “Marketers don't want to spin us. They want to hold us perfectly still, so they can figure out who we are, what we want, and how to reach us.” Malcolm holds us perfectly still and explains spin and direct marketing like he is guiding youngsters out of danger without alarming them. I love his writing style and his dead on perspectives. This is also a great example of calm, knowledgeable writing that should reflect the calm knowledgeable marketing and branding that companies should engage in. Even though it looks like this was written during the Clinton administration, it is even more relevant now. Social marketing is confirming much of what Malcolm discusses here. Thanks Malcolm for being that voice of reason in a sales driven and spin engineered world.

Following is the first one third of the article, click here for the whole thing

The Spin Myth February 09, 2007

Are our spin meisters just spinning one another?

On Easter Sunday, 1929, the legendary public-relations man Edward L. Bernays rounded up ten carefully chosen women, put cigarettes in their hands,and sent them down Fifth Avenue in what was billed as the Torches of Freedom march. The marchers were given detailed instructions, including when and how their cigarettes should be lit. Spokeswomen were enlisted to describe the protest as an advance for feminism. Photographers were hired to take pictures. It was an entirely contrived event that nonetheless looked so "real" that the next day it made front-page headlines across the country, prompting a debate over whether women should be allowed to smoke as freely as men, and--some historians believe--forever changing the social context of cigarettes. What Bernays never told anyone was that he was working for the American Tobacco Company.

It is difficult to appreciate how brazen Bernays's ruse was at the time. In the twenties, the expectation was that if you were trying to sell people something--even if you were planning to deceive them in the process--you had at least to admit that you were trying to sell them something. Bernays was guided by the principle that this wasn't true: that sometimes the best way to sell something (cigarettes, say) was to pretend to be selling something else (freedom, say).

Bernays helped the brewing industry establish beer as "the beverage of moderation." For Dixie cups, he founded the Committee for the Study and Promotion of the Sanitary Dispensing of Food and Drink. For the Mack truck company, he drummed up national support for highway construction through front groups called the Trucking Information Service, the Trucking Service Bureau, and Better Living Through Increased Highway Transportation. In a torrent of books and articles (including one book, "Crystallizing Public Opinion," that was found in Joseph Goebbels's library) he argued that the P.R. professional could "continuously and systematically" perform the task of "regimenting the public mind." He wasn't talking about lying. He was talking about artful, staged half- truth. It's the kind of sly deception that we've come to associate with the Reagan Administration's intricately scripted photo ops (the cowboy hats, the flannel shirts, the horse), with the choreographed folksiness of Clinton's Town Hall meetings, with the "Wag the Dog" world of political operatives, and with the Dilbertian byways of boardroom euphemism, in which firing is "rightsizing" and dismembering companies becomes "unlocking shareholder value." Edward L. Bernays invented spin.

Today, we're told, Bernays's touch is everywhere. The advertising critic Randall Rothenberg has suggested that there is something called a Media-Spindustrial Complex, which encompasses advertising, P.R., lobbying, polling, direct mail, investor relations, focus groups, jury consulting, speechwriting, radio and television stations, and newspapers--all in the business of twisting and turning and gyrating. Argument now masquerades as conversation. Spin, the political columnist E.J. Dionne wrote recently, "obliterates the distinction between persuasion and deception." Should P.R. people tell "the whole truth about our clients? No sirree!" Thomas Madden, the chairman of one of the largest P.R. firms in the country, declares in his recent memoir, entitled "Spin Man." In the best-seller "Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine," Howard Kurtz,the media critic for the Washington Post, even describes as spin the White House's decision in the spring of 1997 to release thousands of pages of documents relating to the Democratic fund-raising scandal.

This was the documentation that the press had been clamoring for. You might have thought that it was full disclosure. Not so, says Kurtz, who dubs the diabolical plan Operation Candor. In playing the honesty card, he argues, the White House preëmpted embarrassing leaks by congressional investigators and buried incriminating documents under an avalanche of paper. Of course, not releasing any documents at all would also have been spin (Stonewall Spin), and so would releasing only a handful of unrepresentative documents (Selection Spin). But, if you think that calling everything "spin" renders the term meaningless (if this is all spin, then what is not spin?), you've missed the point. The notion that this is the age of spin rests on the premise that everything, including the truth, is potentially an instrument of manipulation.

In "P.R. A Social History of Spin," the media critic Stuart Ewen describes how, in 1990, he went to visit Bernays at his home near Harvard Square, in Cambridge. He was ushered in by a maid and waited in the library, looking, awestruck, at the shelves. "It was a remarkable collection of books, thousands of them: about public opinion, individual and social psychology, survey research, propaganda, psychological warfare, and so forth--a comprehensive library spanning matters of human motivation and strategies of influence, scanning a period of more than one hundred years," he writes. "These were not the bookshelves of some shallow huckster, but the arsenal of an intellectual. The cross- hairs of nearly every volume were trained on the target of forging public attitudes. Here--in a large white room in Cambridge, Massachusetts--was the constellation of ideas that had inspired and informed a twentieth century preoccupation: the systematic molding of public opinion."

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The key to pitching the pundits and high profile editors at large renowned publications (and small but targeted industry trade publications) is to engage with them beyond just a pitch. Have a conversation with them, ask them their opinions on the topic and not just sell them. They get sold to by what they call “PR Minions” all the time and a real conversation is refreshing for them. You can be honest and tell them you have a story idea you want to pass by them but don’t just focus on your client, focus on the broader trends story; that is where the editors will be focusing. Here are a few additional tips:

·Understand what they write about and ensure that you have read at least the last five articles they have published.

·Remind them of the last time you worked together

·Keep contacting them until they say no and give a reason (not in a rude way but discover it through conversation)

·Offer your client as an expert to explain the industry landscape and "shortcut it" for the editor

·Ensure the story has a human interest angle.

In late 2005 I interviewed several business editors, and here is what they had to say:

•Forbe’s Dennis Kneale: he is looking for a strong central character, a protagonist, to tell the story of the company and their struggle.

•BusinessWeek’s Steve Hamm: Conflict, good guys and bad guys, and he loves stories where the bad guys win. “If a story dramatically shifts the competitive landscape, or if it defiesconventional wisdom, that’s the kind of story we want at BusinessWeek.”

•Benn Elgin of BusinessWeek: he appreciates anecdotes that can lead to real storytelling, like “There he was on the 4th floor conference room on a crisp November morning…”

When working with these pundits, it is important to understand the industry landscape and recent trends. Working within a specific industry, you have an insider perspective that adds value to the editor’s perspective. They want it and need it. However because they are inundated with so many PR folks who have not done their homework editors often will not give you the benefit of the doubt. If you have done your homework, understand the BENEFITS of your product and can intelligently discuss the industry trends then have the confidence to ask the editor questions until they are engaged into a conversation.

Here are a few ways to get that insider perspective that the editors will see as valuable:

·You have all kinds of people in the company that have opinions and great insights, use them:

oTalk to your sales guys find out what their customers are saying.

oSpeak with product managers about their perspective of the market competitors and customers.

·Talk to customers when you can

·Read, read and read some more… (or scan as the case may be) understand what the broader landscape is so you can have an intelligent conversation with editors and analysts

·Customize your email pitch to editors (see qualification below)

There are some caveats with the list above.

1)Use common sense when sharing with editors, every bit of a conversation with you is fair game for printing… there is no such thing as off the record!

2)Most of you likely rolled your eyes at the suggestion of reading… “when do I have time” is usually the mantra. Here are some suggestion to overcome this:

a.Don’t pile it up or you wont; ever get to it. Do it in the moment. As you are about to call several high profile editors read their content.

b.Do a quick Google news search on the topic and scan the material until you get some good info and have a better understanding. Cut and paste the nuggets into a page of talking points that you can have in front of you when speaking with editors.

c.Ask them questions about what you’ve read. Asking questions of a high profile editor will not only engage them but you will likely learn something really interesting about the sector.

d.Use what you learn from editors in your next conversation, you will likely learn another nugget of information you might not have known

3)You will have better luck with engineers and product managers by catching them in the hall and in the lunch room… they will be more open and casual and you will likely get better info than a formal meeting (which they probably won’t take any way)

4)It would be physically impossible on today’s PR budgets to customize each email. Customize the top 10 – 20 publications; the high end or very targeted ones. Then divide your list into several spreadsheets based on specific pitches. Customize the pitch to each list (for example focus the healthcare pitch to the healthcare list, the enterprise story to the enterprise focused publications etc.). Then use a service or Outlook/Word mail merge to ensure the email is customized with each editor’s name (and maybe include a field with their publication in the body of the email).

Bottom line is do your homework, read the editors recent articles, figure out the style and tone and engage them in a conversation. You likely won’t get a placement the first time but by the third try you have started to build a relationship, and that trust will put you at the top of the list the next time there is a story the editor is developing about your topic.

I have literally seen thousands of releases that are a big ball of jargon especially technology releases… but this can happen in any industry. Here is a rule of thumb if a friend or relative who is not in your industry can get the general gist of the release and understand what the news is, who it will benefit and how, then it is a good release.

Following is an example of an extremely well written release but it has zero benefit statements and for anyone but an engineer it is incomprehensible. Remember even though an editor at an engineering focused publication may understand a lot of technology, he can’t understand it all. The purpose of the release to ensure that these editors can glance through it and understand the news of the release, have a handle on how your product is benefiting customers and know the main messaging of the company.

COMPANYNAME1, Inc. (COMPANYNAME1), developers of the award-winning PRODUCT NAME1 solution for wireless terminal environments, today announced a new technology partnership with COMPANYNAME2. The partnership is a result of the two companies recently successfully testing and validating the flawless interoperability of COMPANYNAME1's PRODUCT NAME1 thin-client wireless terminal emulation software and COMPANYNAME2's new VoIP push-to-talk software -- running together at the same time, on the same device, using the same RF/wireless network connection. HERE IS THE FIRST CHANCE TO OFFER A BENEFIT STATEMENT. WHY IS OFFERING IT ON THE SAME DEVICE AT THE SAME TIME IMPORTANT? WHAT DOES IT DO FOR THE END-USER? WHO IS THE END-USER AUDIENCE?

"The ability for a user to have a flawless experience with voice and terminal emulation running on the same device makes the COMPANYNAME2 and PRODUCT NAME1 combination unique and a must-have next-generation solution stack for enterprises deploying Windows Mobile RF/wireless terminal devices," said xxxxx. "Most handheld wireless devices sold by MANUFACTURERNAME and other manufacturers are still being used as terminals for accessing host-based applications, so this technology partnership and resulting validated solution stack is a strategic win for both our companies and the markets we serve."

COMPANYNAME2, like PRODUCT NAME1, is a MANUFACTURERNAME +PLUS Validated software solution that is reliable, affordable and user-friendly, allowing workers to instantly talk with others using MANUFACTURERNAME mobile computers. Users need only click on the name of the person they want to speak to, and they are instantly connected together in either hands-free, full- or half-duplex voice modes. The software is cross-compatible with various operating systems, including Windows CE.NET 4.2, Pocket PC 2003, Windows Mobile 5.0 and CE 5.0.

PRODUCT NAME1 -- the market leader in host-based, thin-client wireless terminal emulation -- provides centralized, secure, high-performance wireless access to 5250/3270, VT100/220 and SSHv2 host-based screen applications, with support for a wide range of wireless terminal devices that, in addition to MANUFACTURERNAME, also includes those from Intermec, AML, PSC, HHP, LXE, and Psion-Teklogix. With PRODUCT NAME1, all terminal emulation and client device/session control runs natively on the same host system as the Telnet or SSH server, with only a thin-client software component loaded on each device being used.

Unlike legacy, device-side Telnet/SSH terminal emulation that uses TCP/IP, PRODUCT NAME1 thin-client terminal emulation features a unique UDP/IP-based host-communication scheme that is proving to be inherently compatible with VoIP applications, according to XXXXX.

"We anticipate that a solution stack comprising two MANUFACTURERNAME +PLUS Validated software solutions, authored by two innovative MANUFACTURERNAME ISV partners, that offers this type of compelling added-value for MANUFACTURERNAME mobile computers will be extremely well-received by our channel of solution-oriented PRODUCT NAME1 Certified Partner wireless technology resellers and their customers," said xxxx.

This release while well written has no benefit statements, just technology statements. It is a typical engineering driven release that is frustrating to editors and customers alike. I usually apply the “who cares” test; who would care about the news or content of this release… I suspect just the engineer that wrote it.

Exercise: get your last twenty releases and put them in a pile in front of you. Now pretend you are an editor… these twenty release represent about two hours worth of what an editor would receive in any given day. Your time limit is five minutes, now read through these releases in that five minute time frame. How did you do? Did the lead have a benefit statement that drew you into to read more? Did the first paragraph explain in a nutshell the real news or meat of the release? Now having reviewed these all at once, is there an underlying message that you can succinctly state from this grouping of releases?

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